One of the highly-anticipated action RPG Elden Ring’s producers confirmed the length of the game’s main story. In an interview for Taipei Game Show 2022 (via CBR), Yasuhiro Kitao revealed that players following Elden Ring’s main story would take around 30 hours to finish it. However, the game offers much more content.
When asked about Elden Ring’s playtime, Kitao said that the time it takes to reach the ending "will differ significantly by player, but in terms of the targets set during development, the idea is that the main route should be able to be completed within around 30 hours.” That makes Elden Ring somewhat bigger than FromSoftware's latest game, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and on par with other titles from the studio, such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne.
However, Kitao underlined how Elden Ring offers much more content than its main story, as Elden Ring “is quite massive, and contains many dozens more hours worth of gameplay.” Also, just as with previous FromSoftware games, it is “technically it's impossible to reach 100 percent” of Elden Ring in a single playthrough, which means players will have to beat the game multiple times before finding out what’s hidden in its vast open-world.
Kitao also used the occasion to underline how Elden Ring will repeat the successful formula of the studio, offering player’s the chance to start a New Game Plus where enemies are stronger. As Kitao puts it, “after clearing the game the first time, you can carry across your character data and play the game again, against powered-up enemies.”
Elden Ring is published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, which partnered with FromSoftware for the whole Dark Souls series. All FromSoftware games have in common that they are highly demanding, forcing players to learn their combat systems while trying to defeat complex bosses. FromSoftware games are also known for their unique lore, built through dialogues and item descriptions instead of long cutscenes.
Elden Ring was first announced during E3 2019 with a trailer that showed FromSoftware coming back to the medieval setting. New details emerged at 2021’s E3, with FromSoftware revealing the massive scope of Elden Ring, which promises to blend the Dark Souls formula to the freedom of open-world games. Elden Ring is also being marketed as the largest FromSoftware game yet, an impressive claim, given that the developers’ titles are known for their extensive worlds.
After being delayed, Elden Ring will now come to the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on February 25th, 2022.